User Reviews

Thanks go out to BA Therealnomayo for hosting a tasting that included every barrel aged version of dark app. The brew pours dark brown to black with a mochoa colored head. A light swirl aggitates bubbles back to the surface.

The smell is quite tangy with alcohol esters and almost a vinous element that seems like it is too much. The oak/barrel aging reveals itself with suggestions of coconut mixed with raw oak and a bit of vanilla. Not the best dark app treatment but not horrible either.

The taste is quite tangy with alcohol. Some raw oak, vanilla and ash tray aftertaste. As it warms up, there is cocoa and coffee hints but the tangy alcohol is not well integrated with its vinous and nearly tart components.

This is a medium bodied brew with a moderate amount of carbonation. Im guessing the vinous elements of this barrel is what caused the distraction and made the character of this brew just clash. Dark app on its own has some tang to it but this brandy barrel really exaggerated it and not in a good way. While not a bad beer, I would opt for any other treatment than this one.

The second bottle in the six beer set that we'd assembled. I think this one came from claaark13. Cheers!

From a bomber into a snifter
Vintage: 2011
Bottle 99 of 240

APPEARANCE: Much the same as the base beer, with a couple improvements. Pours out dark brown, almost black, and yields a small, medium looking, fizzy tan head with half decent retention. Retains a little better than the base beer, but also fades quickly to a thin ring. Black opaque body with next to zero carbonation evident. A ring remains and leaves a few dots of lacing down the glass.

SMELL: Roasted malts, brandy and ribs! Burnt meat and BBQ sauce. Some dark chocolate and coffee notes in there, but this is all about ribs and BBQ sauce in the backyard by the pool. Whoa. Pretty off-putting.

TASTE: Starts with some roasted malts, tobacco brandy, and the BBQ suace is a little more subtle here. Luckily, though it actually works a little better here. Not that that's saying much. Caramel sweetness and a touch of dark chocolate at the swallow, moving into a bold and lingering aftertaste of brandy barrel, roasted and smoked malts, and caramel sweetness. Some alcohol shows up as well and give it a bit of a hair spray character as well.

PALATE: Medium body and medium carbonation. Creamy enough on the palate but a touch too light for the style. Goes down smooth and finishes very sticky on the palate. A little too cloying for my tastes. Same cloying feel as the base beer, though a touch lighter in body.

OVERALL: Hair spray and BBQ sauce are not the qualities I'm usually looking for in a barrel aged imperial stout, and this time was no different. I don't know where these flavors came from, but as a collective community here, we should do whatever it takes to make sure they generally don't feel welcome. Train wreck of a beer. Avoid.

Medium bodied with a nice balanced of brandy barrel, roasted and sweet malt notes. Really sweet with a strong boozy barrel presence. Hits of toasted oak, charred wood and brandy followed by some coffee, dark chocolate and smokey, roasted malt. A bit thinner than expected and a bit too much sweetness. Lots of boozy flavor but not too hot. Decently quaffable.

Just like the others. Dark, heavy, and sticky. Oily legs but no head and no lacing.

Nose is vanilla, booze, wood, and leather. Some chocolate, fudge, and prunes. Sweeter than the others and lacking that slight tartness from the base. That helps.

Opens sweet nuttiness. Some caramel, prunes, and chocolate. Tartness from the base hits hard and fast. Anise and more prunes towards the middle. Finishes roasty with hints of cocoa powder and cream. Aftertaste is more tartness. Pretty middle of the road considering its peers.

Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Oily and slick in the mouth and goes down warm and sticky. Messy finish with a lingering aftertaste. Again, a bit thin but the barrel helps.

Not quite as good as the Kopi and Bourbon but a bit better than the base and the vanilla, this one sits squarely in the middle of the Dark Apparition offerings. A decent beer but this keeps me wishing the base beer was better.

Opaque black body capped by a thin but lasting light tan froth. Sweet, buttery nose. A lot of slick diacetyl, tart dark fruit, sweet barrel notes, butterscotch. Palate is slick and buttery up front, some noticeable sweetness from the barrel along with mild tannins. Dark fruit and charred malt toward the mid-palate, some burnt acidity and a little heat in the finish. Ends with a big grape alcohol character. This is alright, by no means good. The base beer seems to be afflicted with diacetyl and a burnt acidic malt flavor.

Bottle: Poured a pitch-black color stout with small foamy head with minimal retention. Aroma consists of black chocolate with some Macintosh toffee notes and some light brandy. Taste is also a mix between some light dry black chocolate notes with some Macintosh toffee notes and some brandy, which is more pronounced when tasted then in the aroma. Body is full with low carbonation and some light alcohol is apparent though not too strong to distract.

From notes. Shared at the DL Variant + Others Tasting in Chicago by deadmule back in October. Thanks again Brian - this was a fun one that I was very excited to try...a nice surprise for sure!

A: For simplicity, I’ll call it black. I was debating many other options here, but at the end of the day, it’s just black. One-quarter fingernail (dark tan) head on vigorous pour.

S: Roasted malt in your face with a whisper of dark chocolate and caramel. Overtones of sweet brandy sneak from the glass as I rapidly swirled the beer around.

T: Toffee, dark chocolate, and brandy. Very sweet. Hint of figs/plums hidden in the layers.

M: Somewhere between medium and full-bodied with low carbonation. Nicely put together start to finish.

O: This beer was an excellent introduction for me to Jackie O’s. They have always been on my radar, but never crossed my path. Simply put, it was a solid beer. I’d return to it in the future and look forward to trying their other offerings going forward.

A: Pours an opaque dark brown (basically black -- the lighting isn't strong enough to get into nuances here). A vigorous pour elicits only a pinky finger of mocha head that quickly collapses into a very thin film, which lingers for a long time.

S: Dark-fruit dominated, with brandy (grape) leading the way. Suggestions of fig are noted, as is some vanilla and a touch of oak. Chocolate and notes of molasses also waft toward the nose.

T: Begins with a brandy-barrel sweetness, lending accents of grape and mild vanilla to the base beer's flavors of milk chocolate, roast, and cherry. A light grape tartness (or possibly grainy sourness) going on, and the finish is mildly astringent with lingering flavors of leather, earth, and oak -- they're bitter and a little acrid. Given my odd experience with the 2011 Bourbon iteration, I am of heightened sensitivity here. But maybe I'm just over-cautious. See my "overall" section below for elaboration.

M: Medium-bodied with low carbonation. Mild booziness. I'm not fond of the finish, which leaves leather and oak naked; they're not a good way of closing out this beer.

O: I have to be honest here: I've developed a notion, prior to try this beer, that grape-based spirit/liquor/etc. barrels just don't work for stouts and porters. I arrived at that conclusion after trying several wine-, port-, and brandy-barrel aged beers in those styles and finding them all lacking. I think that grape flavors can work with, but not really enhance, stout flavors. So when I say I'm not impressed by this, you should take it with a grain of salt and keep my possible bias in mind.

I also drank the 2011 Bourbon Dark Apparition recently, and found it to have a grainy sourness or beginning-infection flavor. I find a similar flavor in the Brandy DA, but in this beer it's less pronounced, so I'm inclined to think it's just from the brandy. Whatever the case, it brings the beer down, and the finish, which is jarring, hurts it more.

Reviewed from notes. 22oz bottle shared at a recent tasting. It poured a very dark brown color with a thin, bubbly, tan head clinging to the edges of the glass.

The aroma has a lot of dark fruits coming out in it with notes of fig and plum being the most noticeable. Some brown sugar flavors mix with a little roasty, chocolaty, stout flavors. The sweeter, dark fruits flavors are pretty bold in it, but it's a pretty good aroma overall.

The taste shows the dark fruits more up front with some fig, plum and cherry notes coming out. In the finish I get more chocolate and cocoa to it with just a little bit of a roasty presence. Some alcohol is noticeable in the finish as well.

The mouthfeel is heavy with carbonation being moderate. Overall I thought it was a pretty solid beer. It has a lot of sweeter, dark fruits and chocolate flavors to it but it managed to pull everything together pretty nicely.

The beer pours black with a brown head and very nice lacing. The aroma is boozy with brandy, chocolate, roasted malts, and molasses. It is very sweet. On to the taste, brandy and booze are at the forefront, but chocolate makes its presence known on the back. Sweet and blended well. Much better than Angel's Share Brandy, which is basically all I have to compare this too. Coffee roasts on the finish. The problem is the body is very thin and has a very low carbonation. The low carbonation on this and Angel's Share makes me wonder how feasible aging in Brandy barrels is going forward. Not digging this very much.

Taste brings some light chocolate, oatmeal even, creamy chocolate milk, again with lots of caramel, tons! A hint of booze sneaks through with a bit of the burnt roast flavor but not a lot of either. A hint of fruit, like fig or brandy soaked raisins again, as it's semi sweet with more creamy chocolate and a light boozy brandy flavor. Light barrel and oak, with a hint of woody esters. Finishes a bit drier with lots more caramel, hint of cinnamon spice, chocolate, oats, chewy, dark chocolate, bitter roast, all lingering on the finish. Its quite bitter but not really an acrid burnt flavor.

Mouth is heavier bodied, lower but decent carb.

Overall really nice, great dark malt flavors, chocolate, bit of roast, tons and tons of caramel, a bit of barrel and wood flavors, some nice brandy with fruit and slight esters, some nice bitterness, and a touch of booze that doesn't kick ass. A nice well rounded tasty beer.

Uh... it's really dark - close to black. No head/retention or lace. Brandy imparts a tangy fruit booziness. Burnt molasses and chocolate. Makes for tangy dark fruit. Way thinner than most Dark Apps. Regardless, it's way smooth. Light carbonation. Burnt sugars still emerge, and get messy with the brandy notes. Earthy finish. Not nearly as good as rum.

o - Overall a very good beer, but no where near as good as the other versions I've had. My least favorite of the DA beers so far; would personally sit on this for a while or trade for the other versions. Worth trying though and still a well done beer.

A: Near black with a finger of dark foam that lingers for half a minute.

S: Brown sugar, dark chocolate, and molasses with a nice brandy profile. Smells pretty good except for a persistent butter note that cuts through the more pleasant attributes. Oak accompanies vanilla.

T: Fudge and brown sugar with delicious brandy notes and less butter than was in the nose. It's pretty easy to ignore, actually. Vanilla is light. There's a little plum and a whisper of coffee. Alcohol is evident but not harsh or detracting.

M: Full in body with lower moderate carbonation. The mouthfeel is chewy, sticky, and creamy.

Overall: Good stuff that would have been much better without the butter notes.

S: Brandy aromas practically jump out of the glass on this one. Very vinous with a nice spirit character as well. Oak and vanilla are also there, as is a graham cracker sweetness to balance the roast and dark chocolate. Perhaps a hint of butter.

T: The flavor is fairly sweet from all the fruit notes of the brandy. Lots of molasses, graham cracker, and vanilla also contribute to that. All the roast is sort of counteracted here. A little bit of tannic oak is also present.

M: Medium bodied with a low, smooth carbonation.

O: Significantly better than the Bourbon version. The butter on the nose was the thing that held this one back from being a real stand out.

A - Dark brown beer with a tan head that had some moderate retention and left the sides of the glass clean.

S - Tons of butter. It's really a butter bomb. There is a bit of brandy and some cocoa sweetness but it is dominated by a very rich buttery smell. I dig butter though, so this isn't an entirely bad thing.

T - Out of all the DA variants I've had, this one is my least favorite. It seems to have turned in some strange way, little bit sweet. Strange butter, brandy doesn't seem to have melded very well with the beer, and doesn't taste good either. A little hot, and hard to get down.

The beer is dark brown with a finger of tan head. The aroma is quite nice and complex, with brandy, oak, and roast. The flavor brings vanilla and oak with some booze and barrel notes. I seem to like this brew considerably more than my esteemed cohorts. The feel is medium bodied with moderate carbonation. The finish has a subtle harsh kick with some booze notes. Overall, I thought this complex, tasty, and interesting. I would have it again.

Thanks to Mike Thorpe (his review is below mine on here) for bringing this to a recent tasting!

A: Very Dark brown hue with a ring of head thats tan with a little lacing, good but not great.

S: The smell I dig. It's like a cinnamon espresso mousse cake in the nose, seriously interesting smell I've never had in a beer before. Nutmeg, maybe a little malt, no hops at all, brown sugar, and overall a 'vanilla frosting' smell. Very alluring if you like confectionary desserts especially.

T/M: Very different than the smell, not nearly what I thinking it would be like, almost a different beer completely. Roast and coffee are the main flavors with barely any brandy or oak present to me, like a smaller RIS. The finish is a bit acrid and bitter but not in a hoppy way, kind of like old coffee. It's also dryer than I thought and it seems unbalanced. It's still not a bad beer by any stretch, but it's also not the best.

Big thanks to Brad for hosting this release and putting out another batch of fine beers. Shared at a tasting the other night and served in a SAVOR snifter.

Pours a dark brown color with a good light tan head and some spots of lacing. Thin cap and collar throughout. Cap covers the collar, but I can assure you that it's there.

The nose has a whole lot of oak and vanillin. It's very, very reminiscent of an oaky chardonnay in that regard. Behind that is some chocolate and roast with light brandy. Very buttery, but not from diacetyl. The flavor takes a step back from that, with a bit of booze and brandy plus some light oak and vanilla and roast. Medium body and very smooth. This is where the barrel really shines.

Overall, quite good, but not at the level of some of the others in the Jackie O's BA stout series.

Pours a dark blackish-brown with no light permeating. This stuff is very thick, but not completely black like some RIS. Nice light tan head forms and dissipates quickly.

The smell reminds me of a super complex chocolate cake. Chocolate, batter, frosting sweetness. Its all here. There are slight hints of roast and a note of rum raisin. As I found out in a hurry, the smell is definitely, without question, the best part of this beer and it goes down hill from here.

The taste is very weird. There is some chocolately sweetness but is overcome quickly by a crazy amount of coffee bitterness that is not pleasant. I guess it would be akin to chewing a roasted coffee bean. A just plain acrid finish only contributes to the problem of being totally unbalanced toward an awkward bitterness. This is really a strange amalgamation of flavors. Maybe I had a bad bottle.

The mouthfeel also works against the beer with a VERY hot alcohol finish.

Overall this beer has a great aroma, but the flavor is so weirdly unbalanced. I don't recommend going out of your way to try this.